La Cocina Municipal Market opened in early April, years later, giving BIPOC women entrepreneurs the chance to run small businesses in downtown San Francisco. Currently, six companies operate from the Tenderloin space, the seventh will join, offering everything from Nepalese momos to Algerian stew. It is a hard-won success in a city that has had historically high rents and operating costs for small food businesses and a tremendous partnership between a non-profit organization and the city government.
However, not everyone is on board with the mission. When a Twitter commenter questioned the $ 16 price tag on a four-taco platter from a La Cocina salesman, wondering, “What the hell is this gentrification?” non-profit applauded back in the best way.
It’s an important conversation: who gets to charge what? BIPOC-run businesses often expect to fall into the category of “cheap food”, despite facing exactly the same costs as other groups of restaurant owners.
“What does the market care about when you have a market full of immigrants and a black woman from Bayview?” asks Tiffany Carter, chef-owner of Boug Cali in the Marketplace. “I am just offended. Obviously, everyone is quite aware of the cost of living in San Francisco, so it’s kind of offensive for people to make these statements and even more offensive than women of color. It is as if people automatically assume that we should have cheap food and we are not necessarily allowed to operate on it at a certain price. ”
In addition to their regular menus, Marketplace vendors offer a $ 5 plate each day, one of the ways vendors and La Cocina hope to create inclusiveness and fairness in the marketplace, giving neighborhood residents reasons to come for a hot meal. Guadalupe Moreno of Mi Morena offers a hearty stew for $ 5, “in honor of my sister who is the queen of mass feeding!” For context, a regular taco at El Castillito in Tenderloin currently stands at $ 3.49, a comparable price for a simple taco with onion and coriander.
“We offer $ 14 for handmade tacos with fresh stews, fresh local ingredients and there is rice and beans in tacos, it’s a really hearty meal,” says Cyntia Salazar, Guadlupe Moreno’s daughter, who helps her Mi Morena business. “We have to pay employees, ingredients, labor, utility bills, rent and insurance and storage, and I don’t think a lot of people are considering that. Not only that, but we are in the middle of a pandemic in which the ingredients have just passed through the roof. ”
Salazar says they kept the same prices at the Marketplace that they charged when they drove their food truck, precovid. “In any case, we might lose some money, but we didn’t want to increase our prices, especially here in Tenderloin.” A few months ago, Mi Morena even stopped serving beef due to rising prices and product shortages.
Over the years, there have been several outrages about the cost of things in the Gulf area, including the famous $ 4 toast at Mill, the craft coffee shop on Divisadero. Since opening in 2013, the cost of this toast has risen to $ 8. Currently, avocados in the SF markets cost from $ 0.79 to $ 2.99 each at El Chico Produce in Mission to $ 3 for $ 5 (on sale) at Marina Safeway. But the cost of this toast also includes home-baked bread, the cost of renting Divisadero, salaries and medical care, and more. Now, is anyone blinking to pay so much for toast?
For Salazar and Moreno, opening up in Tenderloin was a long-term goal. I have lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and are very familiar with the shortage of fresh food there and it is important to note the difference between gentrification and the basic provision of goods and services.
“I think it’s very important for people to know the costs and the love that goes into it,” says Salazar. “One of our main goals was to have our business here in our neighborhood, because we know how important it is to have affordable food when you have 10 liquor stores in a few blocks.”
San Francisco, meanwhile, has reported the largest increase in grocery prices from year to year, and is currently asking companies to pay a minimum wage of $ 16.07. It’s something that all restaurateurs do, from BIPOC suppliers to Michelin-starred restaurants – some have only a larger margin available.
The lesson? There are endless hidden costs in every dish on every San Francisco menu (and more). Be prepared to pay for the cost of outdoor food. The other lesson: Don’t come for La Cocina.